Cat By Heart
by Animal Warrior
Summary: Darkness hangs over the clans and a strange prophecy is told about strangers saving the clans. Moons later, two strangers come and want to join ThunderClan, but are they the two mentioned in the prophecy, or will they seal ThunderClan's doom?
1. Prologue

Prologue

The moaning echoed through the dark tunnels. A young fox was trapped, its hindquarters buried under a landslide. The fox had been chased into the tunnels by a pack of large dogs from twolegplace. In his panic, he ran into the tunnels. The dogs stopped chasing it, put he was also lost. While trying to escape, he wandered into a tunnel only to find it a dead end. He turned around to leave, but the roof collapsed and had him trapped. Hours went by and the fox knew the end was near. Then a noise came from farther in the tunnel. The noise continued. The fox perked his ears, trying to identify what it was. Then noise became louder, and thin he realized it was _paw steps_! But now the question was, what was coming towards him? The paw steps were light, so he knew it wasn't a badger. Nether was there a clacking of claws hitting the stone floor. Before he knew it, whatever the thing was, it was in front of him. He caught the scent, _cat! But cats hate foxes._ The cat paused in front of him, and then went behind him and started messing with the rocks burying his legs. The cat was helping him!

It seemed forever the fox was waiting for the cat to finish unburying him. The cat moved a few more stones and the fox was free! The fox tried to get up, but his back legs began hurting. No matter what, they couldn't support his weight. The cat watched for a moment, and picked the fox up by his scruff and began dragging him out of the tunnel. The cat dragged the fox through a maze of tunnels, some of which seemed to the fox that they had already traveled through. After a while of being dragged, the fox began seeing a light ahead. They walked out of the tunnel and into a clearing. The light seemed to be coming through a crack in the roof. The cat dragged the fox to a heap of moss and set him down in it. The cat then left, returning a while later with several fish in its mouth. The cat dropped them by the fox, then left again. This time, the cat was gone longer, but returned with a bundle of herbs and other stuff. The cat walked to the fox, began chewing up some of the herbs, and spat the pulp onto the fox's legs. The he lied some sticks be the fox's legs and began binding them to his legs with a lot of gray, sticky stuff. After the cat finished, he left and returned with moss, lied it down, and curled up and went to sleep. The fox, with the day's troubles, fell fast asleep.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Lionblaze was hunting. He had waken up before the dawn patrol so he could get a good day's worth of hunting. It was mid-greenleaf and the prey was running well. It was sunhigh and he had already caught two squirrels, a mouse, a vole, and a large rabbit. He was stalking a chaffinch when he caught a rank stench. _Fox!_ He quickly killed the small bird with a swift bite to the neck and buried it with the rest of his prey. Then he stalked after the scent. He found the fox in a small clearing eating a dove it had caught. Lionblaze climbed a nearby yew and crept along a long, slender branch that stuck out over the clearing. The fox had finished the dove and started to leave. Lionblaze leaped at it, clinging to it's back and worried it might get away. The fox rolled onto its back, squeezing the air out of Lionblaze's lungs. Lionblaze struggled out from beneath it, running his claws along the fox's side, blood welling from the deep scratches. The fox howled in pain as it scrambled to its paws. Lionblaze leaped on it again, but the fox shook him ff quickly. The fox swung its paw at Lionblaze, but he dodged it and grabbed its paw in his jaws. Lionblaze bit down hard, satisfied when he heard the bones crush in his teeth. The fox tore its paw from Lionblaze's mouth and limped away, whimpering. Lionblaze gathered his prey and returned to camp.

"Where's Firestar?" Lionblaze asked after he deposited his prey, having to make several trips.

"He's in his den," Graystripe told him.

"Thanks," Lionblaze told Graystripe, then he headed towards the path leading up the cliff-face to Firestar's den. "Firestar?" Lionblaze called into the leader's den.

"Come in, Lionblaze," Firestar called back.

Lionblaze went through the lichen curtain. "I wanted to tell you; I chased out a fox, I think it was the same one as last time."

"Thank you. Are you sure it was the same one as last time?" Firestar asked.

"Yes, I'm sure. It had the same scent and markings," Lionblaze replied, "I broke its leg, so it shouldn't be bake soon."

"Good, you did well. Get a patrol and make sure it's gone please."

"Sure," Lionblaze replied, "Who should I bring?"

"Thank you, bring whoever you like," Firestar replied.

Lionblaze nodded and left the den. He found Cloudtail, Sorreltail, and Thornclaw, who agreed to come.

The four cats left into the forest. They padded silently through the forest top where Lionblaze had found the fox. As the neared the clearing, Lionblaze smelled rabbit. "Hold on a second, I smell rabbit, let me catch it real quick," Lionblaze told the rest of the patrol.

"Okay, but don't be long," Thornclaw replied.

Lionblaze crept after the rabbit. As he neared the source, he realized it wasn't just rabbit he was smelling. He sped up, going around a large holly bush, and found the source, a large puddle of fresh rabbit blood. "You all might want to come see this!" he called to the rest of the patrol.

"What is it?" Sorreltail asked when the patrol found him.

"Fresh rabbit blood. This was a cat, but not WindClan."

"Are you sure?" Cloudtail asked, "They could of disguised their scent."

"Then explain why the scent leads _away_ from the border," Lionblaze shot back.

"Stop arguing. Are we going to deal with this or the fox?" Sorreltail butted in.

"Let's deal with this first," Lionblaze said.

The patrol followed the scent trail several fox-lengths, where it lead into a large bramble patch with a whole some cat tried to disguise. As if on a silent command, the patrol split into two groups and circled around the brambles. Finding no scent trail leading out of the brambles, the patrol returned to the scent trail. "What's the plan of attack?" Sorreltail asked.

"I'm thinking of three of use surrounding the patch while the fourth goes in. It's either the cat fights whoever goes in, or gets out and is attacked by whoever is guarding that part," Lionblaze said.

"Good idea. Who agrees on that plan?" Sorreltail asked.

"I agree," Cloudtail said.

"Me too," Thornclaw agreed.

"Okay, so who's going in?" Lionblaze asked.

"It was your idea, you should go in," Thornclaw commented. The other cats agreed.

"Okay. Thornclaw, you take the left, Cloudtail, you take the right, Sorreltail, you take the far side. Shout when you're ready," Lionblaze commanded.

The other cats ran to their positions and shortly after shouted that they were all ready. Hearing them, Lionblaze dove through the entrance, his blood roaring in his ears, barely feeling the thorns scrapping his pelt. Soon, he reached the middle of the bramble patch. _Where's the cat?_ Then he saw what was in front of him. Lionblaze turned around and dashed out the bramble patch.

"Was the cat in there? Cloudtail asked when Lionblaze emerged.

"No," Lionblaze replied, looking back at the entrance to the brambles, seeing is golden fur decorating the thorns, "Worse, an entrance to the tunnels are in their, and the cat is somewhere in there."


End file.
